As a librarian and teacher, I have had lots of success using multimedia tools for whole group and demonstrative purposes. Using audio and video elements in the introduction and guided practice sections of the lesson cycle allows me to provide relatively concrete experiences for my students. When I taught social studies, I played music clips from various cultures and time periods and showed video clips of faraway places and things. As a science teacher, I used web-based simulators to demonstrate the immense distance between planets in the Milky Way and to show the relative sizes of tiny biological elements such as bacteria and blood cells.
Now that I am working as a librarian, I have been able to incorporate tools and media in similar ways. For example, this week we read Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Students watched the story unfold on a document camera projection as they listened to the author read his story via audio book. Due to technology, this one activity could accommodate visual, auditory, and tactile learners through the projected book, the recording and the more traditional tool, construction paper.
I am less proficient at providing opportunities for my students to independently use tools and explore media. At the root of this deficiency is the paradox of children's adoration of computers. Since students love using computers, they are the perfect tool to grab learners' attention; but, because the computers are beloved, there are inevitable quarrels over shared equipment and wildly wandering Internet browsers. The detrimental possibilities are as myriad as the benefits, so I am mostly inclined to CONTROL the classroom media experiences militantly.Also, there are many new tools and media that I have yet to master or even attempt. I am a child of the Internet era, so it is sometimes hard for me to list and define my areas of technological familiarity. My blog, online photo albums, and social network and chat accounts are just things that I do. I'm not always sure which tools other people, or the ubiquitous average person, knows how to use. Nevertheless, I have recently learned of many tools, specifically web-based programs, with which I am somewhat to completely unfamiliar.
This fall, I have a double dose of motivation to become more proficient with instructional tools and media. Last month I started a brand new job as an elementary school librarian. As librarian, I am responsible for circulating and maintaining small electronics, such as overhead projectors, stereos and listening centers, for classroom use. Additionally, my new school's Campus Improvement Plan includes a goal for improving students' computer proficiency, and the library contains the school's second largest bank of computers after the Instructional Specialist's lab. For these reasons, my instruction in the library this year must include emphasis on student technology exposure and use. At the same time, I am working on an MLS in the evenings, and this semester one of my classes focuses entirely on instructional technology. Now that the technology stars have aligned, I am excited to use this impetus to take advantage of my strengths and build my repertoire.
As this year goes on, I want to continue to find ways to incorporate media into storytimes and lessons, but I also want to push myself to include opportunities for students to use tools and media first-hand. This week, I demonstrated the online library catalog using the digital projector, but then went further and led several hundred students in independent searches using the student computers. I think that with careful time management and deliberate planning, I will be able to, at least mostly, avoid serious technology-related problems. I am looking forward to teaching students how to research independently, take advantage of district-purchased databases and subscriptions, and explore tools and media.
In order to gain the familiarity necessary to teach these new skills, I have identified a few sources of information for myself. Through ongoing librarian professional development provided by my district, I will have opportunities to ask questions about and explore many of the programs and online tools available to my students. I have also found a few people who can help me as I expand my skills. My librarian mentor is very comfortable with many digital tools and makes effective use of them in her library lessons. I plan to take advantage of her expertise as well as that of my school's Technology Specialist as I navigate new tools.
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